Women should not use hormone therapy (HT) to prevent chronic conditions, such as bone loss, after menopause. The advice is the draft recommendation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). It does not apply to women using hormone therapy to treat menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes.

Many women who have used the hormone replacement therapy drugs Premarin and Prempro during menopause have developed breast cancer. A study released in 2002 by the Women’s Health Initiative found that the use of HRT drugs increased the risk of breast cancer.

The following video highlights the cases of two former HRT users who developed breast cancer and have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of these drugs.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit affirmed a lower court’s $2.75 million liability and compensatory damages judgment for Donna Scroggin in her case against Wyeth and Upjohn. Scroggin alleges that she developed breast cancer after using hormone replacement therapy products manufactured by the defendants. In so ruling, said Scroggin’s trial counsel, James Morris, Jr., of The Morris Law Firm, the appeals court set good precedent for plaintiffs on the causation and statute of limitations defenses that have marked the litigation so far. Erik Walker of Hissey Kientz, a member of the plaintiffs steering committee in the MDL, argued at the Eighth Circuit for Scroggin.

Women whose breasts became tender after taking hormone replacement therapy had nearly twice the risk of developing breast cancer than women whose breasts did not become tender on the drugs, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said breast tenderness may be a way to identify women who have a higher risk of developing breast cancer while taking hormone replacement therapy to treat menopause.

The timing and type of hormone replacement therapy women take to relieve menopausal symptoms seem to determine the degree of breast cancer risk they face, a new French study suggests. Overall, starting estrogen-progestagen therapy soon after menopause appears to boost the risk of breast cancer, even when only used for short periods of time. Women who began the therapy in the three years after menopause and took it for two years or less had a 54 percent higher risk of breast cancer compared to those who never used the therapy.

Women who are on hormone therapy or who have used it in the recent past are at higher risk of ovarian cancer than women who have never been on hormone therapy, a new study shows. The increase in risk was found regardless of the hormone dose or formulation, whether hormones were taken by mouth, transdermal patch, or vaginally, or whether the treatment included just estrogen or estrogen and progestin, the researchers say.